Apparatus for conveying and loading articles and, in particular, articles supported on hooked members, are used in various industries. For example, articles conveyed in an assembly line are frequently supported on hooked members. The hooked members are carried by a conveyor so that the articles can be used or worked on in the assembly line.
In laundry and dry cleaning facilities, the hooked members are typically garment hangers. The cleaned garments (typically several hundred) are placed on hangers and loaded onto a sorting conveyor, wherein several drop-off stations are located at various points along the sorting conveyor for depositing the cleaned garments.
In order to sort the garments, they are moved by the sorting conveyor and unloaded in predetermined drop-off stations. The sorted garments located in one or more drop-off stations are then loaded into trucks for delivery to the customers.
In order to sort the garments on the sorting conveyor, each garment must be identified and therefore typically has a label displaying identifying information. Thus, prior to loading the garments onto the sorting conveyor, an operator may read the label for each respective garment and, in turn, enter the identifying data into a computer. The operator then loads each garment by hand onto the sorting conveyor.
The operator's job of reading the labels on each of the garments and entering the identifying data into a computer is tedious. As a result, operators can frequently make mistakes either in reading the labels on the garments, or entering the data from the labels into the computer. Once the erroneous data is entered into the computer, the garments cannot be properly sorted.
The job of loading the garments one after another onto the sorting conveyor is also tedious. Operators can therefore frequently make mistakes, such as placing the garments in the wrong order on the conveyor, or loading more than one hanger into a single latch on the conveyor. Such mistakes can prevent the garments from being properly sorted.